Melvin found guilty of throwing feces at N.B. jail guards

Halifax crime figure Jimmy Melvin Jr., 30, has been found guilty of two counts of assault with a weapon for throwing feces at guards in a New Brunswick jail in November. (STAFF / File)

A notorious Halifax crime figure has been found guilty of two counts of assault with a weapon.

Jimmy Melvin Jr., 30, stood trial in provincial court in Moncton, N.B., this week on allegations that he threw feces at two guards at the Shediac jail in November.

The guards testified that Melvin was carrying a coffee cup when he approached them at the Southeast Regional Correctional Centre on the afternoon of Nov. 19.

They said Melvin tossed the contents of the cup into their faces, spraying them with what they believed to be feces.

Defence lawyer Helene Beaulieu told the court that Melvin accepts responsibility for assaulting the guards but doesn’t admit to using a weapon. She challenged the victims’ assertion that they were splattered with feces, saying they aren’t experts and can’t say for sure what hit them.

On Wednesday, Judge Camille Vautour convicted Melvin and ordered him to return to court Feb. 6 for sentencing. He remanded Melvin into federal custody.

Melvin has dozens of convictions on his criminal record and has spent much of his adult life in prison.

In December 2011, he was sentenced to 21 months in jail for an attack on a man in Dartmouth. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping the victim and assaulting him with a baseball bat.

Melvin was also serving time for throwing feces at two guards at the Cape Breton Correctional Facility in Gardiner Mines on Oct. 6, 2010, and for committing mischief at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth by damaging a sprinkler and camera cover on Oct. 26, 2010.

He was transferred to the New Brunswick provincial jail system last year to serve the balance of his time on the Nova Scotia matters and was due to be released from custody on Jan. 11.